Weekly Wrasslin' Wroundup: May 25-29

Mon, 06/01/2015 - 12:58 — Bryan Lambert

I didn't have time to watch New Japan Pro Wrestling World over the weekend, so I'll have to double up on that this week. Last week was the fallout from NXT Takeover, the buildup to WWE Elimination Chamber, and another episode proving that Lucha Underground is the one hour a week that matters.

LUCHA UNDERGROUND

...which blew everything else out of the water this week. The worst match of the show, Johnny Mundo re-establishing his new heel status with a win over Aerostar, was as good as the best match anywhere else (the Smackdown tag match). And the double main event of Puma v. Hernandez and the Fenix-Mil Muertes "death" match, were both great in their own ways.

Mil Muertes' return as a SUPER MONSTER is not necessarily a booking choice I would have made, but given that they made that choice, they absolutely handled it correctly, with Muertes literally slamming Fenix through a roof to the floor below. Was the stunt rigged? Of course it was. Did it still work? Hell yes. Other promotions could learn so much from Lucha Underground. I kind of hope they don't, though.

About the only disappointment is that there's been no further followthrough or mention of the MAGIC AZTEC AMULETS from a couple of weeks ago. Fenix won one, and it would have been cool to have Muertes take it after this match. But that's just icing on a cake that kicked the ass of...

WWE NXT:

...which was a standard reset show following a big event. And with two stars out injured and a third ready to jump to Raw, a big reset is needed. Unfortunately, this show didn't do much. A Kevin Owens promo and a dominating match against Solomon Crow reminded us that KO is a badass, but he's going to the main roster. We were reminded that Blake and Murphy are still tag champs, yawn. We were reminded that Finn Balor is awesome, but not really reminded that he's the #1 contender and likely next NXT champion. And we were reminded that Emma hates Bayley by Emma beating Bayley. Pull the goddamn trigger on champion Bayley already.

But the wrestling, from the women and Owens, was good enough to still give it the nod over...

WWE SMACKDOWN

...which featured Kidd and Cesaro wrestling the Lucha Dragons, which was more entertaining than anything on Raw was. Sure, the rest of the show was shit, and/or retreads of Raw, but I could watch Kidd/Cesaro and the Dragons go eight minutes every week. Hell, the match was even a lumberjack match featuring everyone else in the Elimination Chamber tag match, and it didn't break down into bullshit. The lumberjacks did their job and the match was great.

And then Kevin Owens cut a murderous promo on John Cena, making damn sure Smackdown would be more watchable than...

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW

...which starts with an entertaining back and forth between Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, which unfortunately turns into a stock, by-the-numbers tag match and a weird show-long story about whether or not Dean Ambrose can find a clipboard in the Nassau Coliseum. Rusev destroys R-Truth, which is as it should be, and then furthers his weird love triangle story with Lana and Ziggler, which is not as it should be. Also, I'm pretty sure Lana's entrance music is just Rusev's with all the low-register instruments filtered out.

Arresting a wrestler never works, by the way. You'd think HHH of all people would know that. But they keep putting Ryback in matches and that never works either, so who knows? The Entourage guys are here doing their best Grumpycat impersonation. Stephen Amell is at ringside getting into it with Stardust before his match with Neville. Hey, Neville wrestling! Neville winning! Halfway through the show and the Watchable Things count finally hits two. Sheamus fought Ziggler, because, well, the three guys in the IC Title match who can wrestle worth a damn all got singles matches with their non-wrestling cohorts

Zack Ryder gets the John Cena treatment, sor of - he gets to hit his signature moves on Cena, but only after Entourage-ference. Needless to say, he did not kick out of Cena's finisher like certain upcoming NXT stars have in recent weeks. Only Kevin Owens showing up with a new shirt powerbombing Cena into next week wakes me up. At this point, I'm so bored I spend the Dean Ambrose Gets Arrested Recap looking at Kevin Owens' new shirt to see if the lack of an NXT logo indicates a win at Elimination Chamber and a main roster callup. The "main event" is a 10 on 3 handicap match featuring the tag teams from the Chamber match on Sunday. It breaks down immediately because fuck this show, that's why. The show finishes with another Ambrose getting arrested recap and then a plodding segment ending with Ambrose of course signing the contract despite having been arrested. What a fucking dud.